Assists

QUESTION: A foreign factory/seller moves finished goods to a 3rd party storage facility (consolidator’s warehouse), and prior to export to the United States. The goods get mold or rust on them due to an unforeseen excessive length of storage time. The terms of sale for the goods are FCA (consolidators warehouse), and the importer/buyer is responsible for […]

QUESTION: Normally we import machinery and the design fee is added to the entered value, as an addition. We now have a case that there is only design fee on a USB, as the machinery will be made here in the US. How does one go about reporting the design fee, which is upwards of […]

QUESTION: Our company will be purchasing CD’s in China where the vendor will be recording content that we provide them free of charge. The content provided is developed exclusively in the United States. Is the content that we provide the vendor free of charge considered an Assist? ========== Answers: No. There are multiple CBP rulings on this. […]

QUESTION: A company in China purchased components from its related party in the US. The components will be used in finished goods imported into the US and the price paid will be included in the cost of goods sold. The US party shipped the components freight prepaid and did not bill the China company for […]

QUESTION:   If the company pays for the assist of a tool purchased for use by an overseas vendor, and then wants to import the tool into the U.S., do we still have to pay duty on the tool?   ==========   Answers:   Yes   ==========   Yes. The duty rate paid on the […]

QUESTION: Assists are usually the addition of a value to an import entry when equipment, tooling, or engineering is provided to a supplier/manufacturer at no charge or at a reduced cost. What about the cost of the supplier/manufacturer’s procurement of tooling or equipment overseas?  In our situation, the supplier who manufacturer’s our product may purchase […]

QUESTION: I have a confusing Assist or non-Assist issue I need clarification on. Here is an example of the scenario. Factory  A buys 1000 feet of material and bills the importer for the leather. Ex. 1000.00 USD. Factory A  invoices the importer the 1000.00 cost of the material and produces the product which is part […]

Question:   Question on how to apply the value of an assist US Company purchases, transports and owns equipment at Foreign supplier. Equipment is used to produce goods for export to US.   To declare the assist, it can be done in 1 of 3 ways 1.  At arrival / import of 1st shipment 2. […]

Question:   Question on how to apply the value of an assist US Company purchases, transports and owns equipment at Foreign supplier. Equipment is used to produce goods for export to US.   To declare the assist, it can be done in 1 of 3 ways 1.  At arrival / import of 1st shipment 2. […]

Question:   We recently supplied some gauges, at no cost, to a component supplier and determined these gauges qualified as an assist.  Shortly after the gauges were shipped, an instruction video on how to use the gauges was sent to the supplier via email. I’d like the memberships opinion as to whether the instruction video […]

Question: We are part of the reconciliation program with CBP for payment on our assists. We pay the duties associated with assists on a quarterly basis and utilize the 21 months allowed for items flagged for reconciliation. We would like to see if anyone from the membership can advise best practices for the accounting department […]